Thursday, March 30, 2006

Sad to see that there are still blind right-wing wacko majorities in Wyoming, Utah, and Alabama. King George is turning the country blue - blue from choking on his authoritarian attacks on the Bill of Rights. (click on the image to enlarge)

Monday, March 20, 2006

Well, spring began just after noon today. About that time, the landscape maintenance crew at work had applied enough salt to the parking lot and roads to turn Lake of the Ozarks into the Dead Sea. They were busy putting the snowplows back on the front of their trucks. As of right now, the sleet is beating on the windows and the snow is starting to come down. By lunchtime tomorrow, there will be 3-4 inches of snow on the ground. There's a reasonable chance that tomorrow afternoon, we might be able to use the L.L Bean toboggan that I got 3 Christmases ago and still haven't gotten to use. Although I'm not holding my breath...

Friday, March 17, 2006

I don't really know how she does it, but tbw was visitor #2000 today. If you'll recall, she was also visitor #1000. For her prize, it looks like once again she'll have the opportunity to spend an evening with the Bloom children :o)

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Saturday, March 11, 2006

The issue of Proteins: Structure, Function, & Bioinformatics in honor of my first postdoc advisor George Rose, is now online. And here's the abstract of my paper. Unless you have an expensive paid subscription to the journal online, then you can't access the full paper. I haven't yet seen the journal, but one of the figures from my paper did end up in the collage on the back cover of the journal!

Other than my first patent, this is my first scientific publication since my book chapter in 1998. Holy cow, that's been too long. I may have another book chapter this year along with another paper or two. Here's to more publishing!

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Shame on you, you cheating low-life scumbag. You should immediately receive a lifetime ban from the game of baseball. Your homerun totals should be restored to the number you had before the 1998 season. And, your homerun record should be erased from the record books. You don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. And if it means the proper homerun record is restored to Roger Maris - then so be it. Unless McGwire answers the allegations, then he should be denied the homerun record as well.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Well, I'm not quite 40. That doesn't happen until 10:57pm this evening. I got the usual black-iced cookie bouquet, the over-the-hill signs, and all the AARP jokes. It was a good day. I've mentioned my former colleague who is fighting cancer. Over the holidays, we learned that another of our good friends was diagnosed with cancer. L. came to my "pizza dinner" last night. She's started her chemo treatments. When L. got out of the hospital after Christmas, she mentioned that her hair would probably fall out. I told her that if it did, I'd shave my head with her. Last night she told me that it was starting to thin and I'd better get ready. I told her to call me and we'd go together. It may happen in a couple of weeks after a few more treatments. Neither of these two friends is 40 yet. When you move away from all your friends, you can only hope to find new ones like L. and P. I don't understand why these things seem to happen, but I know that I'll do all I can to make sure that we get to string "Over The Hill" signs for their 40th birthdays.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

I'm sitting here listening to the first broadcast of the Cardinals' spring training game. It seems like so long since we heard the voice of Mike Shannon broadcasting Cardinal baseball. It's only spring training, but at least it's baseball!

I waited 45 minutes for a chance to get tickets to the new Busch Stadium this a.m. when the single game tickets went on sale. I was trying to get tickets to the first Sat. game of the season (against the Reds; baseball card day for the kids). Once I finally got in, I couldn't get 4 tickets together in the affordable sections. The only tickets I could find were $110 each - down by home plate. Ummm sorry, but that's out of the budget. Well, I got booted from the virtual waiting room, and then had to wait again for the chance to get tickets. I waited another hour before giving up and going to work. I'm back home now and have been waiting for another half-hour to this point. Now I see that the game I'm trying for only has single tickets or standing room only available. I think I'm going to have to give up and try StubHub to get the tickets from season ticket holders who don't want to go to those games.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

I got an email today saying that one of my favorite bluesmen died. Willie Kent was the epitome of postwar Chicago blues. He played bass guitar and was a powerful vocalist. I was fortunate to see him at the Big Muddy Blues festival here a few years ago.R.I.P. Wille Kent

About Me

Research Scientist at Monsanto with a passion in sustainable agriculture and helping small stakeholder farmers in the developing world. All opinions expressed or implied are my own and do not represent the position of Monsanto.

Over 20 years bench experience studying protein structure, folding, and
design. Early work was on determinants of protein secondary structure
from a computational approach. The bulk of my lab work has focused on
the structure and function of bacterial protein toxins, mainly on the
endotoxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis and their insecticidal
activities. Related to that work I have an interest in the biophysics of
membranes and how they interact with proteins.

During my research time at the bench, I have become a recognized leader
in building science-based platforms as well as a leading developer of
people. I successfully built a protein design group and then wholly
integrated a broad protein science platform of 35+ people. I then moved
outside of my area of technical expertise and built a cell biology
platform of 35+ people working in all areas of plant cell biology, RNA
biology, and genome modification biology. My current task is integrating
a platform of 40+ scientists in the areas of cell biology and
analytical chemistry.

Outside of direct technical scientific work, I am deeply passionate
about the role of agriculture in helping to eliminate extreme poverty
and in building a sustainable world for small stakeholder farmers in
Africa. Providing the broad set of modern agricultural tools to poor
farmers will provide them with the means to not only feed their
families, but to also participate in the broader economy to raise
themselves out of poverty. Where you live should not determine whether
you live and I am pleased to work with the ONE Campaign to help bring
about this change for Sub-Saharan Africa.